Kamala Harris is the pick and Donald Trump is still a [fill in the bank]

For months I’ve been telling people California Senator Kamala Harris would be Joe Biden’s running mate. People would counter with the usual reasons why she was not a good choice, be it the thousands of people she put in jail while the D.A. in San Francisco and the controversial policies will attorney general of the state.

Then there were the other women of color who appeared to be better picks, based on their backgrounds. We could make a case for any of them, but like Harris they too have baggage from the past, which is not to say they would have been poor choices, just that no matter who Biden chose detractors would find something to pick at.

As soon as Harris was labeled “too ambitious,” I was pretty convinced she would be Uncle Joe’s pick. When the sexist tropes come out, then you know the detractors are getting desperate. Men are never “too ambitious,” only women. Then of course Harris doesn’t smile enough — or maybe it’s too much? There is that delicate balance!

Is she attractive enough? C’mon man! We elected an old fat fuck president so let’s not trot out that sexist line. Is she emotional and crazy? C’mon man! We elected a guy with a 10-yea-old’s personality president!

Kamala Harris is a fighter from the streets of Oakland, that city across the bay from San Francisco that turns out tough guys like Marshawn Lynch, Jason Kidd, Damien Lillard and Bill Russell to name but a few. Is she going to be intimidated by a spoiled brat who was born with a silver spoon up his ass or his sycophantic vice president? Not likely.

Her detractors will say that when she was the district attorney of San Francisco her office was less than transparent, that she wasn’t pro law and order and that she was wishy-washy on the death penalty. That actually carried over to her time as California’s Attorney General.

Also, Harris hasn’t been very progressive on cannabis. Not by a long shot. While D.A. she put many people in jail for marijuana charges and only after winning he campaign to be the attorney general did she admit, “There’s a certain inevitability to it (pot legalization).”

I saw on Facebook a link to a guy’s video — his YouTube channel sponsored by RT, the Russia propaganda machine — telling us why voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris was just as bad as voting for Trump. Seriously, he claims Kamala Harris is no better than any Republican. But, that’s far left moments of blurry clarity. Anyone that doesn’t completely pass the far left — some call it progressive — purity test, well, goddamit, kick them to the fuckin’ curb with the rest of the corporate Democrats!

I gave up on purity tests many years ago, decades actually, when I saw the difference between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. When Reagan took office we lost a lot and we continue to lose as the GOP angrily hangs on to Reagan’s policies that have almost completely destroyed the middle class.

We were better off with Thomas Phillip “Tip” O’Neill, Jr. as Speaker of the House, putting some brakes on the Reagan policies than if a Republican had held that office. Tip was not great, his biggest claim to fame was getting along with Reagan, but he was better than the alternative.

The far left is going to wah-wah until November 3, screaming we should be voting for someone like Libertarian Jo Jorgensen. Here is her solution to rising health care costs — and it is nothing like the solutions by progressives. Jorgensen says, “We can reduce the cost of health care 75% by allowing real price competition, and by substantially reducing government and insurance company paperwork. This will make health care affordable for most Americans, while also reducing the cost of legacy programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA.”

Ummm … yeah … when was the last time an under regulated industry actually lowered costs and benefitted society? When it comes to the environment Jorgensen is all about nuclear power. With a nod to solar and wind power, but mostly it’s about nuclear power.

This is a good time to remind everyone the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, from March 11, 2011. There was highly radioactive water leaking into the Pacific Ocean and it didn’t take long to show up on the shores of North America.

Then there was Chernobyl in 1986. I’m not sold on nuclear power. Thirty-four years after the Chernobyl accident humans are still not allowed in the 20-mile exclusion zone without authorization and proper personal protective equipment.

Then there was Three Mile Island, the nuclear submarines lost at the bottoms of the various oceans, the Bikini Atoll containment cover of cement cracking and succumbing to sea level rise … don’t know what the Bikini Atoll is? Click here. How much of the Marshall Islands are uninhabitable because of all the Nuclear bomb experiments? We don’t really know, native people have been living in the Marshall Islands since the dawn of time. Once than containment coffin is breached by the rising sea level and a strong typhoon …. Eh, who knows.

This wasn’t meant to be a treatise on the dangers of nuclear power, but some topics just seem to have legs.

George Takei is great — “Oh My!” He should be a stand-up comedian. He just pointed out a guy, I will refrain from using his name, who said on Facebook Kamala Harris was unqualified to be president because her parents were immigrants and therefore Kamala was an anchor baby and unqualified to be president.

Man, people are stupid, especially the under-educated dupes voting for and supporting Donald Trump. Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment says, quite explicitly, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” There are no other qualifications regarding citizenship, nothing about parents being immigrants, blah-blah-blah.

Article II of the Constitution sets out the only other qualifications to be president: “No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.”

Kamala Harris is qualified on all counts, but this knucklehead — racist — idea will no doubt make the social media rounds looking for some traction. Here we are in the 21^stcentury, trying to teach basic civics to adults. Maybe Biden and Harris can vow to bring civics back to public school education.

Maybe you remember, maybe you don’t, but back in 2008 when Barack Obama was running for president there were the people suggesting Obama wasn’t really a black man. Cause, you know, his Mom was white. He is only half black. But of course his wife Michelle Obama was too black — and she bared her arms in public!

Now we’re seeing the same bullshit about Kamala Harris. She isn’t an African American woman, because, you know her dad is from Jamaica and her mom is from India. Ever see a picture of Bob Marley or Peter Tosh? Aye-yi-yi.

Boggles the fucking mind the lengths people go to, to prove they are racist assholes.

Now the Trumpers are saying Harris is the most extreme lefty in the U.S. Senate — I would be offended if I were Bernie Sanders — and will bring on the Mongol communist hordes! The GOP said that about Obama as well and he was so centrist I had to gag back my displeasure. They claimed the Affordable Care Act was socialist … despite it being from a right wing think tank.

Single payer, universal health care, that is the only solution. But we won’t get that from Biden and Harris, unless we take over both houses of Congress and do some arm twisting.

Of course the GOP is also pointing out the leftiest of the left don’t believe Harris is progressive enough. I say vote them into office and then proceed to do some arm twisting.

Anyone old enough to remember the music of 1986 … well, fill out your AARP card. Anyway, Genesis released an album called Invisible Touch and one of the hit singles on it was “Land of Confusion.” Is it just me or does it feel like it fits in today’s climate?

Over the past few days I got into it with some Facebook trolls who didn’t like my response to a leading, left-leaning RT operative. It wasn’t even about Kamala Harris, it was about Joe Biden. This troll seems to insist Biden is a predator and pedophile.  I’m sorry — #notsorry — there is absolutely no evidence Joe Biden is either a pedophile or predator. He was a touchy-feely politician for a while, but when called out he stopped. Long before the coronavirus hit.

Ummm yeah … birtherism is back for Harris and QAnon BS for Biden. Welcome to the 2020 election cycle: more racism and whatever the hell that QAnon shit is. Oh wait, I forgot to mention Trump actually said he is actively trying to disrupt the U.S. Postal Service to interfere with the election. Oh my god — and my god is nature, as represented by that big, beautiful ocean 12 miles west of me — will that Orange Douchebag in the Oval Office stop at nothing? I may regret asking.

The 2020 election: with the president and his GOP cronies actively trying to disrupt the mail to interfere with the election, plus take help from Russia — we live in strange times.

To end on a happy note: In a statement to the media, former National Security Advisor and Ambassador to the U.N. Susan E. Rice said, “I warmly congratulate Senator Kamala Harris on her selection as Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential running mate. Senator Harris is a tenacious and trailblazing leader who will make a great partner on the campaign trail.”

Me too.